HYDERABAD: Lack of funds and negligence of revenue officials is causing a major problem for applicants of the State government’s welfare schemes — Kalyana Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubharak — as there are 7,896 applications pending with the Hyderabad district authorities at various levels till the end of July.
The urban folks are finding it difficult to check with the officials on the status of their applications. The ePASS website only says that application is pending. As many as 5,476 applications of SC, ST, BC, EBC and other minorities are pending with the Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) offices at Hyderabad and Secunderabad. Many of them are waiting for two to three months to go to the next level. Around 1,490 applications are pending with the concerned MLAs in the district.
Only 288 applications were forwarded to the treasury department for the release of funds. G Naresh, a resident of Secunderabad who applied for Kalyana Lakshmi scheme for his sister, said that he has been waiting for nearly three months to receive the benefits.
He said, “We had borrowed money at high-interest rates thinking that the benefits from the government will come soon. Now, we have to pay interest every month.” He alleged that the officials intentionally are delaying the process by not releasing adequate funds for the scheme.
On being contacted for the reasons behind the pending applications, a senior official of revenue department on condition of anonymity said, “The applications could be pending as field-level staff are taking time to verify into the claims, and also as there are no funds to disburse the amounts.”
The Hyderabad district officials estimate the required money to be Rs 73.53 crore. The State government had implemented the scheme to financially help marginalised sections.